


you set fire to ashes

by alittlebitlove



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, and jealous and bitchy, athletics!au, harry is cute and cheeky as ever, just ridiculous one-shot with lots of louis basically, long jumpers and high jumpers, louis hates zayn, louis is idiot, louis is ridiculous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-15
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-23 08:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/923877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlebitlove/pseuds/alittlebitlove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Louis is a long jumper and Zayn's his rival and steals all of his gold medals and Harry is a high jumper who's definitely (definitely) dating Zayn and Louis has a plan to work his (arse) charm to seduce Harry and break them up. A brilliant plan, innit?</p>
            </blockquote>





	you set fire to ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Three and a half months later and I'm posting something and it's completely ridiculous and I don't know if this makes any sense but since I wrote it already, here. Thanks to my too lovely friend Korina, this is beta'd so yay! Hopefully, you'll enjoy! :) xx. 
> 
> My Tumblr: http://tomlinscript.tumblr.com

Diamond League. London. Nine meetings are behind him. Louis wonders how the hell he got here. It seems like it was only yesterday when he was playing footie and thinking how he is going to play for ManU once he’s old and good enough and instead, here he is, doing long jumps at athletics meetings and doing one hell of a job at it. It’s crazy, when he thinks of it. He’s thinking a lot about it lately. Or anytime there’s some sort of competition really. Not that he’s only good,  he’s really fucking great and he’s here for the first place again and maybe he’s won only one meeting in Diamond League this year until now, but this is _London_ and London has always been his and he’s not going to let that change. So when he’s standing in the venue, getting ready for a practice, he’s quite confident in himself.

The practice goes well enough and Louis is satisfied. His coach is, too. Louis feels good so he smiles a lot and to everyone – even to his competitors which is like a no-no in every situation but. He decides he can let himself go sometimes. It won’t kill him. Or he hopes so at least. They seem friendly, though, so he takes it as a sign. Or something. Of course, his only real threat, Zayn Malik, is here as well. He doesn’t smile at him.

Zayn has won most of the current meetings and has stolen Louis so many medals and trophies and Louis is furious ever since Zayn stole the first one. They are rivals and they hate each other and it’s simple as that. So when he sees Zayn going towards high jumpers after their practice, Louis snickers, but stares after him all the same. It is duty of his own to know where his enemy number 1 is going and why he’s going there. For all he knows, Zayn’s planning on murdering him and if he doesn’t follow him closely, Zayn will have time to plan it all. And Louis is too young and too beautiful to die. Sure, he’ll look prettier in his grave but. He wants to steal this medal from Zayn first. Then he can die. Okay, not really. He wants to live long enough to have kids and all. He definitely doesn’t want them now. So he must live longer than today. Louis wonders when did he start to think about his own death and Zayn murdering him, but doesn’t come up with a convenient answer. Maybe he thought about it some time ago. Probably.

He stares (or glares, better to say) at Zayn and hopes Zayn won’t notice. Then again, he’s turned away from him, so that can’t really happen. Louis is a bit relieved with that thought. He sees Zayn approaching the taller boy who has just jumped over two-something meters high bar, with huge, cat-like smile and curls and something that suspiciously looks like tattoos everywhere. They hug and maybe Louis imagines it, but the hug seems longer than the I-am-your-friend-let’s-hug-in-greeting one. Louis bites his lips and maybe he really shouldn’t think about his enemy’s relationship with a tall boy but it’s not like anyone can read his thoughts. He looks around just in case. Nobody’s looking at him weirdly. Then it must be fine. He gets his gaze back to the two boys just in time to see the curly boy leaning in closer and whispering something in Zayn’s ear. Louis feels one corner of his lip quirking up as the idea folds in his head. He crosses his arms across his chest and starts tapping his foot as he sees Curly’s hand making its way up to Zayn’s forearm. Okay, maybe it’s wrong and maybe it just means going too far, but who can really blame him? Zayn makes his life _miserable_ every day and he deserves his share of revenge. He turns his head on the side when Curly’s gaze lifts up and Louis really hopes he didn’t catch him staring. He doesn’t find out though because his coach calls his name and he has to get back to his jumps.

 

“You’re going to do what?!” Liam exclaims once they’re settled in their hotel room, and Louis tries to ignore him. He rolls his eyes and slumps on his bed, the cushion wrinkling under his body. He doesn’t in particularly care. He’s not as tidy as Liam, who even makes sure to lie down with caution. Cushion can’t wrinkle even if it wants to.

“I told you already. Are you even listening, my dear Liam?” He asks dumbly because that’s the thing he’s the best at. Well, right after his unbeatable athletic skills ( _not_ counting Zayn). Acting was always a thing he was good at as well. Yeah, Louis Tomlinson _is_ quite talented. He isn’t ashamed to admit it. He knows it so why pretend his self-esteem is low when it’s as high as it gets? Almost as high as Sheldon’s. He’s quite sure nobody can beat _that_.

“Yes, I am. But, god, Louis, you can’t do that to him! I know you’re rivals and all, but that doesn’t mean you can ruin someone’s relationship!” Louis opens one eye and turns his head a bit to look at Liam who looks like he’s going to kill him or something. Maybe Zayn won’t even get the chance to kill him. It looks like Liam is already on it.

“Well, if his _boyfriend_ is so faithful to him, then the said boyfriend won’t have a problem with some hot guy with great arse hitting on him, right?” He smirks and closes his eyes again. The practice was tiring and he needs to get his rest for tomorrow. He really doesn’t need lessons from his best friend who has already done a race and all, might he add. Lucky bastard.

“Yeah, but you won’t stop ‘til he crumbles or something. I know you, Louis. Don’t try to play innocent.” Louis wants to roll his eyes, but he’s too lazy to open them, so he settles for shrugging and turning to the side opposite of Liam.

“I’m not trying to. Good night.” And that’s the end of it for now.

*

He’s woken up at nine am and he’s sure that’s torturing because he doesn’t have to be anywhere until three pm. He could be sleeping in right now until much longer if Liam isn’t nagging about breakfast. Unwillingly, he gets up and goes to the bathroom to make himself look decent. Then he remembers his plan and groans as he realizes that he’ll need to look more presentable (way more presentable) than sweatpants and plain T-shirt will make him look. When he showers and styles his hair as best as he can (it still looks horrible but he can’t make it better no matter how hard he tries), he goes to his suitcase and tries to find his best clothes. Fortunately, he brought his tight, tight black skinny jeans that make his butt even bigger and better and black tank top that reveals his chest piece. He doesn’t know a gay man that wouldn’t drool at the sight of him. This _has_ to work. When he gets out of the bathroom once again, all dressed up, Liam stares at him for far too long before he shakes his head and heads towards the door as an invitation to follow. Louis does.

When they get to the hotel’s restaurant, it’s filled with athletes of all kinds and Louis doesn’t know where the fuck they can even sit because it looks like every seat is occupied. He stands there frozen for a couple of moments before he spots two seats and he’s relieved. He pokes Liam on his shoulder and when Liam dares to turn his head, Louis points to the seats and this time Liam follows him without any complains. As they get closer to their seats, he starts to recognize the person occupying the seat next to the one he already claimed as his and he thinks how luck must be on his side today. He also wants to kiss Liam because if he didn’t wake him up, maybe he would never get a chance. He knows Liam wouldn’t be so happy though.

 

He puts on his nicest smile and nudges Liam who looks at him. Then Louis laughs because that’s what you do when you’re trying to get someone else’s attention. Liam doesn’t get it though so his furrowed eyebrows don’t really help. Still, Curly turns his head in their direction and that’s enough. Louis turns his head towards him and he regrets it immediately. Because curly haired shit has green eyes and Louis has always been a sucker for green eyes. He tries to come off as chill and not at all infatuated. Because he’s not. Not at all. Curly haired shit is _not_ attractive at all. He smiles though and there are dimples as well and Louis is sure that god’s pranking him or something.

“Hello! You want to sit here?” He’s still smiling as he says it and even taps the seat beside him and okay. He’s weird. Not really.

“Uhm, yeah, if that’s not a problem. There’re not many available seats around here.”

“No, no! Not at all! Nobody’s sitting here anyway.” So Louis sits there and Liam sits beside him and Louis’ sure he murmurs curses under his breath as he realizes who’s Louis sitting beside. Louis decides that it’s better to give Curly all of his attention and he hopes Liam won’t kill him later.

“Thanks. What’s your name?” He asks because that’s the first thing you do when you’re meeting someone for the first time, right? He also wonders how the hell he has never seen him before as it’s obvious by the accent that he’s from England. He’s sure he’s not on their team though. He considers all the options and he guesses he’s on the USA team just like Zayn. They were both betraying bastards. When he thinks like that, it’s only one more reason to hate on Zayn and he’s satisfied. However, he finds it hard to hate on curly haired shit (he decides that’s the fitting name for him… or phrase… or something). It’s not exactly fair.

“I’m Harry. You’re Louis, right?” And okay, he doesn’t really expect from… Harry to know his name but. It’s flattering regardless. That means Zayn talks about him which is like, a victory of its own.

“Yeah, yeah, I am. Nice to meet you, Harry.” He smiles widely and offers his hand to shake which Harry does. Things pick up from there. They don’t talk about anything quite special. The things that make no sense are their most common topic and yes, Louis decides that Harry _is_ weird. At least a bit. But, at the same time, Louis isn’t the most normal person ever, so he guesses they kind of fit. He’s funny in its own way and he tells lame jokes, but Louis likes them. He’s also smiling and laughing a lot and it looks like Louis’ jokes are working on him as well because Harry’s red in his face from laughing when their meal arrives (that they ordered in the meantime). Liam watches him warily at first, but then some blonde boy named Nail or something starts up a conversation with him and Louis has never been more glad for something in his life. He has a lot of people to kiss and thank after this meeting is over. 

“So, Harry, what are you exactly doing here?” He asks with fake curiosity and he’s probably not fair but playing dumb is sometimes a necessity. Harry looks conflicted then and Louis thinks that maybe he saw him watching Zayn and him yesterday but he keeps the same look on his face. He doesn’t like to admit when he’s defeated. It looks like Harry lets it go after all and Louis is more than happy.

“I’m competing in High Jump. It’d be normal for you to notice, you know. Since I’m not new and all.” Well shit. Louis regrets only paying attention to Long Jump and races before. He certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Harry’s pretty face before. That is, he wouldn’t mind ruining Zayn’s life before. Harry’s hotness is only the perks.

“I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing this body before, that’s for sure.” And he winks. And it’s a score because Harry turns into a blushing mess afterwards and looks sheepishly at the almost empty plate in front of him. Louis smirks.

 

“Yeah well, I definitely noticed you.” Harry murmurs and Louis almost chokes with the food that he has been stacking in himself. That isn’t really what he expects to hear. But then again, he knew Louis’ name before so why wouldn’t he notice him? Louis questions his own sanity sometimes for no apparent reason.

“I hope you liked what you saw.” He doesn’t think it’s possible for Harry to blush even more, but, as it turns out, it is and it really isn’t helping Louis’ ego much. He should probably warn Harry. He doesn’t see a point though.

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. You’ll never know.” It’s Harry’s turn to smirk right now and Louis loathes how smug he looks. Okay, that’s not the complete truth but. It can almost pass as one. Louis tries not to show how much Harry is getting to him, but he doesn’t really think it’s working. Well, maybe Harry’s dumb enough not to see it. His smile says otherwise though. Louis huffs and gets back to his food. This is definitely not the time to deal with stupid crushes on stupid boys, especially when the said boy is the one he should seduce to destroy Malik’s relationship like that. It’s a piece of cake. Of course it is. Louis Tomlinson is definitely _not_ doing this for the first time.

He pouts, just for a better effect and says “And I’ll forever be sad.” That makes Harry laugh once again and Louis joins him. He hates himself for liking Harry more because he should be hating him. Thing is, Harry is impossible to hate. Oh, how Louis wishes that could be different.

“Don’t be because I think you already know the answer.” Harry winks at him and takes a sip of water. Louis looks away to try and get his thoughts back in order. This is going too far. He should probably stop until it’s not too late, but he’s already here, so stopping seems pointless, right? He just needs to get back on track. Just as he is making a plan in his head (and Harry is staring at him during all that time), there are footsteps and there is someone stopping right behind Harry, greeting him with unnecessary amount of cheerfulness. Louis doesn’t exactly know if it’s a good or a bad thing that Zayn Malik is standing right beside him. On one side, it helped him remember why he’s chatting Harry up, and on the other, he still hates him, therefore he doesn’t like seeing him anywhere near him – not when it’s not required.

“Hey, babe. A few of us are going for a swim by the pool, you want to join us?” Zayn’s smiling down at him and Harry smiles back and while Zayn looks like a devil, Harry looks like an angel. In other words, not a right combination. Louis huffs and shuffles the only fry left on his plate in his mouth. No one notices.

“Sure.” Harry says and turns to Louis. “It was nice meeting you, Louis. I’ll see you around.” He smiles before standing up and following Zayn while Zayn doesn’t give him as much as a glance. Talking about manners. Though Louis doubts he’d be any better so there’s that. He’s still angry Zayn took Harry away. Now he’ll need to find yet another way to seduce Harry and there’s not much time left. He hates his life.

 

“He’s such a bloody wanker!” Louis stretches his limbs and there are bones cracking, but he doesn’t mind. He needs to be in the best form possible. Zayn is god knows where which means Louis has the advantage. He’ll be more prepared once the real competition starts. The perks of not having a boyfriend. Nick snorts beside him. He’s doing High Jumps but sometimes joins Louis when he needs company – or more when Louis is begging for someone to ramble on and on about something. Nick never complains though.

“You say that every time.” Nick’s mocking him and Louis wants to hate him as well but he can’t because he’s known Nick since forever and he’s already learned how to handle him. Besides, it’s not like he isn’t saying the truth. Louis is very passionate about his hate for Zayn Malik. And he especially likes to rant about it.

“I know! But he irritates me more and more every time. On top of it all, he has a boyfriend now who’s also hot and who looks very unfaithful to me and whom I’d really like to shag as well.” He jumps up and down and runs in place to feel the burn he needs to feel and to be ready to win. Nick looks at him sideways and then shakes his head.

“I’m really surprised you haven’t noticed Harry Styles before. Everyone did.” Now Louis feels embarrassed and he doesn’t feel like that often. It’s not his fault he’s mostly focused on his friends’ teams and okay yes, maybe Nick’s doing High Jumps and maybe he should’ve really noticed the curly haired boy, but it’s too late for that now. He’s not paying much of attention to people around him, only the ones he needs to look out for, and if he missed Harry Styles, well, no one can blame him. Right?

“Give me a break. I need to be fully focused on competition here. No time to look at cute guys.” The truth is, Louis is very devoted to the competition and to bringing a medal to his country and to making his fans proud and athletics are Louis’ everything. He really doesn’t have time for pretty boys.

“Whatever you say, mate. I’m not sure they are together though.” Nick furrows his eyebrows as he’s thinking and Louis stops with stretching to look at him.

“Why do you think that?” Nick shrugs and does some weird shit with his legs that Louis is sure he’ll never be able to do. Damn High Jumpers.

“I don’t know. They just seem like a long time friends to me more than anything else.” He shrugs again and then starts stretching as well while leaving Louis to question his own sanity. Louis must be right though. They look like a couple too much to be just friends. Hell, Zayn called Harry ‘babe’ in the restaurant. No matter how weird Louis is, he’s never called Nick or Liam ‘babe’. Yes, Louis _is_ right and Harry and Zayn _are_ together. He’s never wrong, so how can he be now?

“Trust me on this one, Nick. They are and I’m gonna tear them apart.” Okay, he has to admit. That sounds evil even for him. He can’t help it though. Maybe he should be more reasonable and more… human, but he needs this with a burning passion. He needs revenge and Harry doesn’t seem too faithful anyway so he doesn’t see why it’s such a big deal.

“Do whatever you want, Lou, but I won’t help you out in any way.”

Louis snorted. “Like I asked for your help. Don’t worry, I want to do this on my own.” Then Nick smiles and they’re back to their mindless chatter. It helps Louis to relax and bring the nerves down that started building up as time was passing. This is his chance. He can get back at Zayn two times this way and be proud of how he won gold in London once again. Zayn won’t disrupt his string of gold medals here. He won’t let him. He wants to make his family and his fans proud once again. After all, it always comes down to this. No matter the hate between him and Zayn and how much he wants to take that medal away for him, his family and fans always come first. They are the ones that believe in him the most and there’s no way anyone can beat that. A smile doesn’t leave his face this time as he exercises.

*

Ten minutes before his own competition starts, Louis is sitting on a bench with a water bottle in his hand, looking at girls running 800m and Louis admires them. He’s never been much of a runner so it’s always fascinating for him to see them all running for so long. He knows how much practice it takes.

“The view could be better, innit?” He almost jumps when a deep voice whispers in his ear right behind him and he barely keeps himself from punching the person. Startled, he turns his head around and sees the cheeky grin of Harry Styles (Nick’s as good as internet sometimes) with dimples and the whole package and Louis tries his best not to kiss him all over… or jump his bones. Harry just looks too good in his jersey.

“Well, now it definitely is.” Louis answers back with a matching grin and he wonders what the hell’s Harry doing here when he’s quite sure he should be two hundred meters down preparing for his own part of competition. Or why he’s not with Zayn then. Louis doesn’t get him at all.

“Is that so?” He leans in a bit closer and Louis can smell sweat on him. He looks out of breath and worn out and Louis hopes he has the strength for the competition. He doesn’t doubt it much though. (He also realizes he should be cheering for guys from the UK but Harry can be one tiny exception.)

Louis checks him out from head to toe and then looks back up, trying to get him his best I-want-you-in-my-bed-right-now eyes which wasn’t that hard really. “Oh yeah, it is.” He sees how Harry stops for a moment, his grin flattering for a moment. He stares at Louis for what seems like an eternity until he snaps out of it and his lips get closer to Louis’ ear again. They brush against it and Louis is definitely losing his mind by now.

“Stay in the locker room for a bit longer, okay?” His voice is intimate, inviting, and Louis shivers. He can do nothing but nod, still not quite processing what Harry’s just said. This is definitely going nothing as he planned. Harry looks smug when he takes a step back. He winks and then struts back to his side of a venue, leaving Louis dumbfounded. He blinks a few times and shakes his head just in time when his coach calls his name. It’s time for a different kind of show.

 

The first jump goes brilliantly. He doesn’t step on the red line, he has good enough kick to fly and jump longer and he’s on the first place once he lands on his butt. He’s smiling the whole time because good beginnings are the most important. He tries to keep Harry Styles and the locker room later out of his mind.

The second jump’s not perfect, but it’s not bad either. The jump’s correct again, but he could’ve kicked better. That’s why Zayn Malik gets on the first place. Louis feels anger building up inside of him and decides that he won’t let this be the end. It won’t.

He messes up at the fourth jump and he has to do it over again. Of course, Zayn ends up doing perfectly and stealing the first place away from him in seconds. But then he messes up the fifth and Louis does it right and everything is back to normal and Louis’ satisfied. To his surprise though, Zayn doesn’t look upset or even a bit furious at Louis. He looks calm and collected and Louis wonders how the hell he does that. Louis is boiling hot even when he’s in the lead and suddenly he’s jealous at Zayn because he has everything and even when he doesn’t he’s cool with it and it’s just not _fair_ because Louis’ not like him and he just _hates_ it. And Zayn. He _needs_ to hate him because he isn’t fair and he left the UK just to join the USA team after and he just got better. In some way, Louis wants Zayn’s life. It seems better and greater, but then again, he’s satisfied where he is and he wouldn’t change it for anything. It’s a mess in his head and there’s Harry in the back of his mind, too and there’s the whole world watching him and the whole UK excepting him to win that gold medal and he _knows_ he needs to do it – for himself the most. So he tries to focus and do his last jumps just the right way.

 

He wins. It’s tight at the end and Zayn’s close, but Louis still jumps the longest, without making a single mistake, and he’s an official winner and he’s not sure if he laughs or cries the most. London is still his and he just won gold medal over Zayn and it’s so, so great. There’s a part of him waiting to see the fury on Zayn’s face but it isn’t there. Instead, he’s smiling and he even congratulates him and shakes his hand. And Louis really wants to hate him and feel smug about the whole thing but he can’t. So he smiles as well and says ‘thank you’ and he feels like he’s on the other page with Zayn now and it feels nice. He doesn’t exactly understand why Zayn suddenly changed his mind about being completely obnoxious but Louis doesn’t mind that much. Maybe just disliking him for winning almost all of his medals is better. Yes, he’s going to settle for that.

*

He hits the showers after and he feels all of the tension leaving his body. He probably stands under the water for too long but he doesn’t necessarily care because he’s a winner and he deserves a nice, long shower if he needs one (and he does). Once he steps out of it, there are only a few guys left and Louis almost forgot about Harry in the meantime. He gulps, trying to keep calm because there’s nothing to be worried about, right? He picks up fresh clothes from his bag and puts them on. It’s nothing special – just sweatpants and a T-shirt, like he planned to wear for breakfast – and he tries not to be self-conscious about it because Harry shouldn’t make him feel like this. He feels weird, lingering around and trying to find an excuse to stay in longer than necessary without looking suspicious. He doesn’t know if it works, but when the last guy leaves, he lets out a breath of relief. He leans against one of the cold shower walls and waits. He wonders if maybe Harry’s just fooling with him and won’t even show up. Louis hopes that’s not the truth because he’d look just like a right idiot then.

Three minutes later, he hears the door opening. His whole body goes still, hoping it’s the person he thinks it is. Harry shows up wearing black jeans and a white shirt buttoned only half way up, revealing his tattoos. Louis’ mouth go slack and he can’t say anything because _holy shit_ and _who the fuck is he to do this?_ He looks up from Harry’s chest to his eyes once he’s standing right in front of him and there’s a private, little smile and left dimple popping up and Louis feels like pulling him by his shirt and kissing him senseless – so he does just that. Harry crashes into him and their lips join together and Louis can’t get enough of it and he needs him _closer, closer, closer._ Harry doesn’t protest. He grabs Louis by his hips and kisses back just as urgently. Louis barely holds himself from moaning because it’s Harry’s lips and Harry’s body pressing him against the wall. There’s a tongue running against his lower lip, so he opens his mouth wider and kisses him more desperately. There is a moan ripping away from Harry’s throat and Louis’ is so gone. So, so gone. He pulls him tighter, getting on his tiptoes to reach behind his neck. They kiss and there’s fire and Louis forgets about time, about everything he’s planned. All he cares about is _Harry, Harry, Harry_ and he doesn’t want to care about anything else his entire life.

Then it hits him that Harry is Zayn’s and there’s a mission and yes, he fulfilled it but he still feels as guilty as hell and he can’t do this. So he pulls away and opens his eyes, looking at Harry with a horrified look. Harry looks confused with his eyebrows furrowed and bottom lip popped out and Louis wishes he doesn’t look so damn adorable.

“Why did you stop?” He sounds so innocent and clueless and Louis thinks _why_ because he should feel guilty. Still, there’s nothing revealing that Harry feels anything like this so Louis is left confused then. What a great combination.

“What about Zayn? Aren’t you guys together?” Louis asks and bites his lower lip because he does feel guilty and he really shouldn’t because this was his plan and he was all for it and he got his revenge, but somehow it still doesn’t feel right. Harry blinks a few times and then bursts out in a fit of giggles and laughter and Louis doesn’t know what the hell’s so funny.

“You… you think Zayn and I are together?” Louis just nods in a confused manner which sends Harry in another fit of giggles. “Oh my god. Who gave you that idea? We’re just long-time friends, never even been anything more. And besides, I always annoy him with talking about you. I have the hugest crush on you since forever. Just the idea of me dating Zayn is ridiculous.” Louis feels blush creeping up his cheeks and he looks down, feeling completely embarrassed. He should’ve really thought this through before jumping to conclusions but his jealousy got the better of him and here he is – in front of a guy that has a crush on _him_ since forever thinking the guy’s dating his best friend. This couldn’t have gone worse. “You are such an idiot.” Harry adds and then lifts his chin and kisses him once again. And Louis thinks that’s fine. He smiles into the kiss and pulls him closer.

He decides that, yes, this is exactly where he wants to stay.


End file.
